Business Tips

Can You Make Forex Trading a Full Time Job?

You eat up every last bit of market data available and Bloomberg is always on in your office. Trading isn’t just a hobby it’s your passion. Choose a job you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life, but is a professional Forex trader a viable and sustainable career choice? And what are the steps you have to create this exciting career path as a professional Forex trader. Let’s take a look.

Step 1 – Strategy

The difference between hobbyist and professional is consistent income. In trading terms that means consistent returns on investment. If you are so passionate about trading then I am absolutely sure that you have a strategy in place. It could be based on technical or fundamental data, (although its probably a better idea to use both) because forex trading as a career without a strategy, is like jump roping on the edge of cliff. Although you might be successful for some time, eventually the fall will come.

To transition into more professional trading, being able to prove consistent returns is important. This shouldn’t be confused with a no-loss strategy (a unicorn or silver bullet strategy if you will), anyone on the markets knows that loss is part of trading. Overall though if your accumulative losses and wins keep you in the black then you have paved a solid path to professional trading.

Step 2 – Save

Most articles about how to trade are usually sell, sell, sell. They claim that you can trade with any amount (which is true to a certain extent) – but the truth is to be a professional Forex trader, you will need a bit more “heft” behind your trades. What I mean is that you need a slightly more substantial trading account if you intend to go pro. Most analysts say that $10,000 is a good starting level, because this means you won’t be as heavily dependent on leverage, which can skew your risk/reward ratio towards risk. For example, the chart below shows a movement of 53 pips at the opening of the market – which let’s say would be a $53 return with a $1000 position, but equates to $530 with a $10,000 position in an ideal scenario.

If your strategy is intraday – a more substantial account can help make smaller movement more profitable. Another benefit of trading with a bigger account is that it negates the need for high leverage. With a smaller account to make a trade that is significant enough you would have to use a high level of leverage – and a smaller move against your position could blow your account.

Step 3 – “The Back Door”

There are other methods to trade forex as a career – one is becoming a money manager. It’s not an easy gig to get into – you need a proven track record of between 2-3 years with documentation and a license within whichever jurisdiction you have clients. Of course, the license will also benefit you professionally as it would be extremely challenging to convince anyone to give you thousands of dollar, euros or pounds without any professional certification.

Another way to launch a career as a professional forex trader, is by partnering with a broker that offers an affiliate program. If you have a blog or a strong social media presence, then there are programs that allow you to point potential clients towards the company you are partnered with. Although it isn’t directly related to becoming a professional, this can be a jumping board for developing credibility and a pool of clients to draw from when you are ready to transition.

No matter how you choose to launch your career as a professional forex trader, partnering with a forex broker with risk management tools, an intuitive platform and fair trading conditions – that help the trader not the broker – can make achieving your dream just a little less challenging.